Everyone has forgotten a personal item at least once. Once lost, the items may or may not ever be returned to the rightful owner. For example, when on vacation, a user may forget an item(s) in a hotel room. In another example, a customer may forget an item in a rental car, sporting event, or any other establishment or event. The most common item left in hotel rooms is chargers, such as a cell phone charger. However, any other valuable items may also be lost or left behind such as clothing, cell phones, jewelry, and the like. Typically, the establishment personnel simply toss the lost items in a lost-and-found box, wait for a phone call from the customer, and then rummage through the lost-and-found box to see if the description provided by the customer matches any item in the lost-and-found box.
For the customer, he needs to first recall where he may have lost the item. As with many customers, when traveling, it may be difficult to remember where an item may be lost. Thus, the customer ends up having to call all establishments or locations he visited during a trip to locate the item. The customer needs to locate the phone number, call the establishment or location and hope to be in contact with the right person, and then wait (either while on the phone or after calling the establishment) for the establishment or location to locate the item. Unfortunately, the establishment or location may not even locate the item and may or may not contact the customer to inform him. This is not an efficient way for a customer to report and locate lost items.
If the item is found, establishment personnel then need to contact a shipping company, such as FedEx, UPS, or package the item and drop it off at a post office. The guest is typically charged for the return of their lost item, which is typically very expensive since the hotel does not have favorable shipping rates. Since the process is laborious and costly, either the hotel simply does not make the effort to return the lost item to the customer and/or the customer decides to forgo the lost item to simply buy a new item at a lower cost.